The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Winnipeg Jets Thursday night, getting back in the win column for the first time in a while.
Though the Toronto Maple Leafs had lost five in a row, they were the better team in the last four games, and just like their struggling power-play, it really is a much ado about nothing situation – short-term results are always going to be funny, especially in a game like hockey where the random acts of goalies will see the worst team in the league beat the best team almost four times out of ten.
But despite our overall positive views about the Leafs, are their things they could fix? Of course. No team is perfect, and the Leafs sure aren’t.
One thing the Leafs could do to improve is play their veteran “legends” a lot less. The only real problem the Leafs have is that because of the stature of some of their players (i.e respected legends like Joe Thornton and Jason Spezza, as well as highly respected vets Wayne Simmonds and Zach Bogosian) they aren’t able to dress their best lineup.
In what turned out to be a very unpopular opinion, earlier in the year, I questioned these signings because I thought (rightly, it would seem) that the Leafs would deploy their newly signed veterans based on their reputations and not their current abilities.
My concern was/is that NHL coaches (see Babcock/Marleau/Hainsey) have a tendency to overvalue the past work of legendary players at the expense of their current team.
This opinion was roundly mocked, but time has since shown it to be very prescient. Thornton and Simmonds are potentially hurting the team at this point more then they are helping it, but worst of all, they are blocking players with much higher ceilings from playing and contributing.